After
by thequietwriter
Summary: The world had ended. Searching endlessly she found nothing. Nothing but broken earth, broken civilization, and a broken sky.


I do have plans for this, but have no regular sort of update schedule, and no ending sorted out yet. Hope you enjoy what there is and can be patient with me if you want me to continue.

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><p>The miles that stretched out before her were disheartening. Lonely. There was a sort of emptiness to the world outside that she could never imagine only a year ago.<p>

The world had ended. Searching endlessly she found nothing. Nothing but broken earth, broken civilization, and a broken sky.

Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just her.

Had there ever been a time she wasn't broken? The distant past was a mess. Amnesia. Or maybe brain damage. Truthfully, she wasn't sure of her own name.

Or where she was. Where was this?

She sets the cube down, resting her weary arms. Back when they had first met, it hadn't meant much. But after wandering over a year in a broken, lonely world, there was little else to speak to. It was sentient, She had said.

Though like everything else, it was surely a lie.

There was no choice but to believe.

She slumps, closing her eyes, head resting on her arms as she breathed deeply, taking in the scent of the breeze in a field of wheat.

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><p>Wheatley's eyes shot open. Head pounding, noise screeching all around him, his hands shot to the side of his head in a desperate attempt to block out the source of his impending migraine. "What?" he hissed lowly, not even caring that his guide wasn't in view. "Make it sto-"<p>

"Do you honestly think you can get away with this?" a cool, distorted female voice rang out over the sound of the alarm. "Do you even know what you are doing? You are already well aware that you that you are delusional. It says so in your file," The voice continued, making little sense to his fogged brain. What was going on? Where had that scurrying little man in the lab coat gone off too? "Or did you think I had forgotten you?" The screeching was unbearable, threatening to tear his fragile mind to pieces. He closed his eyes again, still kneeling on the floor, immobile.

It took another minute before he was tugged by his arm unceremoniously, dragged away behind the man who had awakened him some hours before. He stumbled, not caring where he was going. Only that it was away. From here. He was pulled behind a thick, steel door which shut with dull clang. The sound was dimmer. More distant.

"She can't see us in here," the hunched man whispered, offering his only explanation before Wheatley could ask. He moved about the room, sorting through debris as if he were looking for something. "I know," he added after a moment, "but it will take time before She can send the bots in there to fix it. We can escape above the seventh shaft."

Wheatley stared, taking in the relative quiet, processing what had just happened. "What…" he finally spoke up, then repeats, "What in the world are you doing?" Coming to his senses, he strides across the room, grabbing at the shoulder of the man to turn him around.

The man stares at him for a moment, as if only realizing now he was in the room. Slowly lowering the strange cube he had been carrying off his back, he blinked, then turned back to the desk. "She'll want to use you. We're escaping. All three of us."

Wheatley opened his mouth to question this, but was interrupted before he could begin.

"Yes, for real this time. He was the only one left. No, I don't care."

Clearly the cube man was delusional. There was no other explanation. Briefly, he recalled the cool voice saying something similar… had she been talking to him?

"Um… Sorry, but you've really got me lost here. Who are you even talking to, mate? Do you think you could, if you don't mind, try to snap out of it and explain what's happening?"

"I already told you." The man opened a cabinet, reaching inside. "Escaping." A moment later he grinned, pulling out a set of headphones. "… Put these on." Thrusting the technology into Wheatley's chest, he turns to the opposite door, picking up his cube again.

"What for, though? And escaping from what? Maybe I should have asked that first… yes, What exactly are we esca-" The door was opened and the screeching resumed instantly. Wheatley scrambled to put the headphones on, dropping them not once, but twice in the process. But once they were on…

Sweet relief.

But the cube man was gone.

Wheatley dashed through the door, following after him onto another set of catwalks. Boy did he hope this lunatic knew what he was doing. It was strange enough when he had first woken up, cold, uncomfortable, and pulled into the lofted labyrinth without explanation. Now they had the noise. Or the quiet. It was confusing. What even was going on? Left, right, right. Through a room with cameras that followed, acid bubbling beneath a strange, semi-transparent bridge he had to be literally dragged across after the cube man realized he hadn't followed and had to come back. Left again… right again… long stretch of catwalk that seemed to-

The man stopped. Dimly, Wheatley was aware that the sound had changed but his concern was focused on the frantic-looking man. Then he took off running. "W-wait!" Wheatley called out, barely able to hear himself through the noise-dampening headset. He rushed afterwards, several paces behind when something fell… or moved… or- was that wall moving on its own? It rammed outwards against the catwalk with enough force to make it shake. Wheatley slipped, clinging to the railing with all he had. He wasn't going to fall. He wasn't going to fall. The wall moved again. And again.

And- it broke. The catwalk. Where the cube man was standing. Was. He was falling. Wheatley stared, unable to keep his eyes off the falling figure until long after it was out of site. Surreal. The headset probably wasn't helping. His eyes shut and he rested, head against the railing while his mind span.

Where even was he?


End file.
